Hebrew without Hebrews: Converso Hebraist Alfonso de Zamora and the Spanish Inquisition

Alfonso de Zamora (ca. 1474–1545) was a teacher of Hebrew at the leading humanist university of Alcalá de Henares in Spain. Among his various writings, he compiled a clandestine text meant as a guidebook to help other conversos face inquisitorial interrogations. The talk will discuss Zamora’s particular struggles and demonstrate, more generally, the complex lives of conversos in early modern Spain.

Congregation Kol Ami, 8201 High School Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027

Jesús de Prado Plumed has published several articles on the life and writings of Alfonso de Zamora. This year at the Katz Center Dr. de Prado is studying a manuscript containing Zamora’s notes which document the last fifteen years of his life in great detail.